ELF 2023

David concentrates his practice in representing both public and private entities in resolving complex labor and employment matters. As a member of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group and the Education and Employment Team, he prides himself on his responsiveness to his client's needs and his ability to find innovative solutions to challenging issues. David’s experience encompasses advising employers on intricate employment laws, including providing reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), ensuring leave is correctly provided under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA), and complying with state and federal wage and hour laws. He also counsels clients on navigating issues such as allegations of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and breaches of the collective bargaining agreement. David represents employers in legal disputes, including lawsuits filed by their employees, discrimination and harassment cases, and whistleblower and alleged retaliation cases. He also provides targeted trainings to help employers comply with the law and proactively manage risks. David has authored numerous articles for various publications, including the New Jersey Law Journal, New Jersey Lawyer, the School Leader Magazine, and the New Jersey Police Chief Magazine.

Kerri focuses her practice in the areas of employment and education law, specifically in representation of management in both. Kerri handles a variety of employment law matters for the firm’s public and private sector clients in state and federal courts as well as before administrative agencies, including the EEOC, PERC, NLRB, and the New Jersey Department of Labor. She has litigation and counseling experience in numerous areas of employment law, including wage and hour claims, restrictive covenants, harassment, discrimination, and whistleblowing. Kerri successfully has defended management in class-action wage and hour lawsuits and handled numerous investigations by management into allegations of employee wrongdoing. She also has represented management in all facets of collective bargaining and labor disputes.

Rahool represents public and private sector employers in a wide range of employment litigation in the federal and state courts of New Jersey and New York, including defending against claims of wage and hour non-compliance, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Rahool also counsels employers on all aspects of the employment relationship from hiring and firing, drafting employee handbooks and policies, preparing employment contracts and separation agreements, protecting proprietary information and trade secrets from misappropriation, addressing requests for leaves of absences under various federal and state laws, and other complex personnel issues.

Brian brings his experience as an educator into his practice of law. As an associate on the Employment and Education Team, he counsels employers and schools, helping them navigate the complexities of litigation while staying centered on their business objectives. He assists public and private clients in navigating all levels of New Jersey Courts, including administrative and federal courts, tailoring a legal strategy to the venue. As a former educator, he can better understands the concerns of teachers and can incorporates those concerns into solving problems for his clients. Brian’s practice includes a focus on Approved Private Schools for Students with Disabilities (APSSDs) and the unique regulations and challenges these entities regularly encounter.

Tom concentrates his practice in the areas of employment and labor counseling and litigation, appellate practice, and education law. Tom has represented public sector and private sector clients alike in a number of high stakes matters, including binding arbitration before the Public Employment Relations Commission, matters before the Office of Administrative Law, cases heard by the Commissioner of Education, and cases on appeal before the Appellate Division and New Jersey Supreme Court. As a former New Jersey Supreme Court law clerk, Tom has brought his appellate experience to bear by briefing dozens of cases for clients before both the Appellate Division and the New Jersey Supreme Court, including cases concerning complex labor and tax disputes, interpretation of New Jersey’s employment statutes, and important matters of public policy.

Janelle specializes in advising public entities and private companies in education, healthcare, and insurance on employment matters ranging from defense of discrimination allegations and claimed violations of the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) to internal investigations of employee wrongdoing. Janelle represents clients in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies, including the EEOC and the New Jersey Department of Labor. Her experience encompasses advising clients on discrete matters as well as serving as outside general counsel for day-to-day operations and issues involving labor and employment. Janelle provides invaluable Human Resource support by assessing policies and complaints related to employee discipline and removal, discrimination, disability accommodations, leaves of absence, harassment, reductions in force, restrictive covenants, and wage and hour disputes. Additionally, Janelle offers solutions for employment contract disputes, questions of regulatory compliance, and standards for implementing and enforcing employment policies. Highly regarded for her interactive training presentations about current employment law topics, Janelle uses her teaching background to engage participants and is a frequent speaker at conferences and industry events.

Kevin is a recognized subject matter expert in law enforcement, management, and school security. A retired New Jersey Police Chief, he has over 30 years of experience in public safety, emergency management, and school security. He is a Licensed Private Detective and is certified as a Public Manager, Police Instructor, School Safety Specialist, and School Resource Officer in New Jersey. Chief Craig holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a specialization in School Security and Safety Administration. He has represented the NJ State Association of Chiefs of Police on the NJ K-12 Task Force in conjunction with the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, and was appointed to the NJ School Security Task Force by the Governor of New Jersey as a subject matter expert. In addition to being awarded the designation of Certified Protection Professional through ASIS International, he is also a certified instructor in Active Shooter Response, De-escalation, Threat Assessment. Chief Craig is an instructor for the NJ School Safety Specialist Academy in the NJ Department of Education, a member of the ASIS International School Safety and Security Council and Advisory Board Member and Senior Instructor for the NJ Association of School Resource Officers. He is an Adjunct Professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University where he instructs courses in emergency management, threat assessment, and crisis communication.

David is Of Counsel to Porzio, Bromberg & Newman and a member of the firm's Education Team. Having been appointed twice as New Jersey's Commissioner of Education, David is an accomplished policy leader with decades of experience throughout all levels of New Jersey and New York education matters. He handles a wide variety of education law matters for schools, school districts and higher education institutions, including personnel issues, student discipline, bullying, special-needs students, and litigation and other actions involving school policy. Well-respected in his field, David is frequently engaged to speak on topics such as education policy, school funding, and school reform.

Dr. Deborah Foulkes Bert is the founder and director of Sophos Counseling. As a Board Certified Licensed Professional Counselor, Dr. Foulkes Bert provides psychotherapeutic services to people from various backgrounds with a focus on crisis, trauma, and abuse and integrating spirituality into psychotherapy. Dr. Foulkes Bert has experience working with multi-disciplinary teams in outpatient and in-patient settings. As a graduate-level educator, she provides clinical supervision and mentorship to other counselors as well as consultation services within the community and faith-based institutions.

Stephen Neff, M.Div., MSN, APN-BC PMHNP is a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner who has been practicing in the field for 17 years. In that time, he has helped run child, adolescent and adult psychiatric inpatient units, partial care programs, intensive outpatient programs and provided the psychiatric consult-liaison service in hospitals/ER’s including psychiatric clearances to go back to work or school. In 2022, he launched the PASS program (Psychiatric Assessments for School Safety) in which he adapted the urgent care model to psychiatric needs, providing an on-demand screening service for children, adolescents and adults, offering psychiatric clearance to return to work or school. Stephen has also done extensive consulting work in the legal system offering expert testimony / court-ordered psychiatric evaluations for hundreds of adolescents and adults over the last decade. He sees children, adolescents and adults in his private practice, Cherry Hill Psychiatry, in sunny Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Richard concentrates his practice on the representation of management in the areas of labor and employment law, education law and general litigation. Richard defends public and private employers in State and Federal courts and administrative agencies. He represents clients in a wide variety of traditional labor law matters, including collective bargaining, grievance and interest arbitration and unfair labor practice proceedings, both before the National Labor Relations Board and the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission. Richard counsels employers on employment-related issues such as ADA obligations, FMLA/FLA compliance, wage and hour and prevailing wage matters, and provides training to employers regarding anti-harassment policies and employee appraisal and supervision. Admitted to the Roster of Superior Court-approved Civil Law Mediators, Richard serves as a court-approved civil mediator.

As a member of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman's Litigation Practice Group, Marie-Laurence (ML) focuses her practice in education law and employment law. She has extensive experience counseling school boards, charter schools and private schools in the labor and employment issues that that impact those clients daily. ML has served the education community for over 30 years. Through the years, she has become a trusted legal advisor to superintendents, business administrators and other school administrators as they deal with the many challenges they face on a daily basis.

Melanie focuses on advising and representing employers in various areas of employment law. She has extensive experience in defending management-side employers against wage and hour claims, EEOC and unfair labor practice charges, OSHA investigations, and audits and investigations by the Department of Labor and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services/Homeland Security. Melanie also serves as the firm's liaison to the Law Firm Anti-Racism Alliance and is a member of the New Jersey and New York State Bars. She is actively involved in the legal community, serving on the New Jersey State Bar Committee on Higher Education, as well as teaching a class on employment law at Rutgers University, School of Management and Labor Relations.

Brian brings his experience as an educator into his practice of law. As an associate on the Employment and Education Team, he counsels employers and schools, helping them navigate the complexities of litigation while staying centered on their business objectives. He assists public and private clients in navigating all levels of New Jersey Courts, including administrative and federal courts, tailoring a legal strategy to the venue. As a former educator, he can better understands the concerns of teachers and can incorporates those concerns into solving problems for his clients. Brian’s practice includes a focus on Approved Private Schools for Students with Disabilities (APSSDs) and the unique regulations and challenges these entities regularly encounter.

Sal is part of Porzio's Employment, Education Law and Real Estate Teams where he focuses on collective bargaining negotiations and various real estate matters. Since the passage of adult-use cannabis, Sal counsels clients who are licensed applicants or interested parties on real estate and zoning matters related to that emerging industry . Sal also serves as Vice President and General Counsel with Porzio Governmental Affairs, the lobbying subsidiary of Porzio, where he advises an assortment of corporations, insurance companies, financial institutions, and trade associations on legislative and regulatory developments that could potentially impact their business. Sal is of Counsel to Porzio Bromberg & Newman and a Registered Government Affairs Agent of the State of New Jersey.

Vito is the Managing Principal of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, also serving as president as the firm's subsidiaries Porzio Governmental Affairs and Porzio Compliance Services. He is co-chair of the firm's Litigation Practice Group and the Education and Employment Team. Vito is a certified Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey Board on Trial Certification. He has extensive experience handling employment law cases for both public and private sector clients in state and federal courts, as well as before arbitrators. He also chairs the New Jersey Law Revision Commission. Recently, in February 2023, Vito was inducted as a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Patricia is Of Counsel to Porzio, Bromberg & Newman and is a member of the Firm’s Education Team. Patricia is also a Director at Porzio Governmental Affairs, specializing in education policy with over a decade of experience both inside and outside of government. Patricia served as a former Assistant Commissioner at the New Jersey Department of Education as Chief Legal & External Affairs Officer, as well as serving as Assistant Counsel in the Governor’s Office, focusing on K-12 education, higher education, and children and families. She has in-depth legal and policy expertise in special education, school ethics, school funding, and student discipline, including matters of harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Patricia works with traditional public school districts, charter schools, private schools for students with disabilities, and higher education institutions.

15th Annual

Employment Law Forum
October 4, 2023

Please also take a moment to complete our evaluation form to help inform next year’s program.

15th Annual

Employment Law ForumOctober 4, 2023

Please also take a moment to complete our evaluation form to help inform next year’s program.

Employment Law Forum
October 4, 2023